Only One Got it Right
by Youllneverguess13
Summary: "The Final Battle was not a battle, but a moment where fate and chaos fled and left nothing but human madness standing in their wake." A brief one-shot to test out a different style of writing.


**Note:** Here is a little piece on the effect of the final battle. I wanted to try out a little bit of different style and well, this is the result. Please let me know your thoughts, good and bad, as I really would like to know what you guys think of this kind of writing. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy!

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own Harry Potter

 **Only One Got it Right**

There had been countless news articles published since that final battle. Countless made up quotes and out of context descriptions along with several relatively factual pieces published as well. But none of them did it justice.

Not a single one was truly able to capture the horror of that day and the way that one battle continued to shape every action that each participant took from that moment onwards..

There had been countless articles published and none of them got it right.

Not a single one of them got it right until someone that was there, that had lived through it all, sat down and took the time to put their experience into words.

There had been countless articles published and only one of them got it right.

 _"_ _The Final Battle was not a battle but a moment where fate and chaos fled and left nothing but human madness left standing in it's place._

 _The smell is something I will never forget. Everyone talks about the sounds of battle, the flashing of spells, but for me, what will remain forever is the smell._

 _Death has a smell._

 _A random and depressing fact I wish I remained blissfully ignorant and yet I know far too well._

 _Death smells like despair mixed with desperation with just enough hope to highlight the horror of the stillness._

 _It doesn't smell stale, but rather fresh in it's absence._

 _The smell is something I will never forget._

 _I remember the sounds, but they are slowly being replaced by the sounds of laughter and pleasant cacophonies of noise, such as children running into suits of armor in their haste to reach a party._

 _I remember the flashes of light but they are steadily being overlaid with the gentle glow of the moon and soft flickering of the patronuses my friends and family use to watch over me when they must leave my side._

 _I will remember the sounds and the flashes, but I will always remember the smell._

 _Battle is chaos._

 _People like to describe battle in fancy ways, such as a dance or a clashing of two sides but that is not battle; that's child's daydream of what fighting should be._

 _Battle is churned earth and the pounding of your heartbeat like a war drum in your head._

 _Battle does not have rhythm that you can get lost in. It does not have rules or structure._

 _Battle is spells that leave numb lips that you have no recollection ever learning. Its the feeling of pain that is all at once overwhelming and nothing more than a distant echo._

 _Battle is feeling everything at once and nothing at all and not knowing which is better or how it is possible to embody such contradictions even as you somehow manage to do so without conscious thought._

 _Battle is chaos, both outside and inside, wrecking havoc on body and mind alike with careless apathy._

 _The final battle was no different._

 _It was a chaotic shuffle as everyone fought to live to hear their next breath rattle and catch in their panic filled chest._

 _Battle is chaos._

 _Battle is chaos and fate is the foundation of hope._

 _Fate provides meaning in a meaningless world and allows people to find purpose in pointless actions. Fate sets the rules that people use to build their lives, explaining the unexplainable and giving them reason to face impossible odds. It's easy to have hope when fate is there to ensure everything will work out._

 _Fate is the foundation of hope._

 _Fate is the foundation and Harry's lifeless form cradled in Hagrid's arm was the image that sent fate and chaos alike fleeing like a shadow confronted with the sun's glimmering rays._

 _The chaos disappeared from the tear stained earth as everyone froze in disbelief. The chaos that fueled their veins dripped onto the pavement as their wounds, physical and emotional alike bled into the soil at their motionless feet. For how could they move without chaos to fuel their frenzied actions?_

 _Battle is chaos._

 _Harry was fated to save us. The chosen one. The one the guidebook of the universe clearly said could defeat the monster that was determined to destroy ua all. And yet Harry was dead and in the face of such horror, fate too had fled._

 _Fate is the foundation of hope._

 _In the absence of fate and chaos, the two forces that traditionally govern our universe, there is nothing left but plain old human madness, and that is what won the war._

 _It was not a spell._

 _It was not a prophecy._

 _It was the core quality of humankind; insanity._

 _For what sane person would yell at a mass murder who gazed at them with nothing but murder in his heart? Chaos has no part in such calculations and fate clearly shows that the outcome should not be favorable._

 _And yet Neville stood there, proud and tall and saved us all._

 _Harry walked calmly to his death. Chaos could not touch the serenity of his heart and fate shrieked that this was not the way it was supposed to end._

 _And yet Harry fell to the ground without protest and saved us all._

 _Molly Weasley, a housewife with no formal battle training faced one of the most ferocious of Voldemort's followers with nothing but a wand adn righteous justice on her side. Her grief was beyond chaos's grip and fate declared the odds were she would die a painful and horrific death._

 _And yet she destroyed Bellatrix without fear and saved us all._

 _I will always remember the smell, firmly entrenched within my memories. I will never forget the chaos that calls battle its home and I will never cease to see fate wherever I may go._

 _But I will never again underestimate human madness._

 _For it was not chaos or fate or a spell or a thought or the actions of any one person. In a battle so horrific even fate and chaos fled; in a time so dark the flame of insanity alone was left burning, it was that light of human madness that saved us all._

 _So I cling to that madness with a determination that probably is an act of insanity all of it's own._

 _I love my family with reckless abandon and take foolish risks with my heart. I choose to spend more time than is wise on activities that make me smile rather than things that accomplish goals. In short, I think less and live more._

 _The Final Battle was not a battle but a moment where fate and chaos fled and left nothing but human madness left standing in it's place._

 _It was a spark that grew into a wildfire that continues to burn in the heart of everyone left standing. A fire that runs through our very veins, setting our dreams on fire and lighting the way to a new way of life that was shrouded in darkness before we learnt how to blaze paths all our own._

 _The Final Battle was not a battle but a moment where fate and chaos fled and left nothing but human madness left standing in it's place; It was a moment that came to define everyone after it."_

 _\- An anonymous survivor_

There had been countless articles published and only one of them got it right.


End file.
